Senate Dems push for more judges amid SCOTUS fight

Senate Democrats on Wednesday ratcheted up their fight with Republicans over judicial nominations, pushing for swift confirmations of two lower court judges even as the outlook for a future Supreme Court nominee remained bleak.

Democrats used a previously scheduled hearing with Attorney General Loretta Lynch to pound Republicans over their vow to stop any consideration of a replacement for Justice Antonin Scalia, who died last month. Hours later, Democrats then took to the floor to demand immediate confirmation of two federal judges whose nominations have lingered for months — a move promptly blocked by Republicans.

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“It’s not just with the Supreme Court that the Republican majority is not doing their jobs,” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday. “It’s about appointments up and down the line.”

The controversy over filling the Supreme Court vacancy has devolved into a partisan fracas in all corners of the Senate, with Democrats using committee hearings, press conferences and floor speeches to pressure Republicans to cave on their promise to block a Supreme Court nominee.

The two judges Democrats chose to highlight Wednesday both cleared the Judiciary Committee unanimously and have been waiting for a floor vote for months. One, Waverly Crenshaw, is the nominee to fill a vacancy for the Middle District of Tennessee and is strongly backed by the state’s two Republican senators, Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander.

The other, Paula Xinis, has been nominated for the District Court of Maryland.

"The president is doing his job by nominating individuals who will serve with distinction on the bench," White House spokesman Eric Schultz said Wednesday. "It is time for Senate Republicans to do theirs by confirming these eminently qualified nominees and committing to giving the president’s nominee to the high court a fair hearing."

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas objected on behalf of Republicans, saying it was Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s prerogative to set the Senate floor schedule.

“If every senator could come down here and cherry-pick different nominations from the calendar and ask consent that we move to executive session and consider those … it would result in some chaos,” Cornyn said.

Of course, the nominations weren’t going anywhere on the floor. But Senate Democrats were using the procedural tactic to underscore Republicans’ blockade on the high-profile vacancy on the Supreme Court.

“I am really frustrated. I am so frustrated that … President Obama doesn’t get to be President Obama,” Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) said. “His job as president is to nominate competent people for an independent branch of the government – the federal judiciary. He did his job.”

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), whose been the main target of Democrats’ ire over the Supreme Court controversy, said the slow action on filling other judicial slots was partially the fault of the white House.

For courts with so-called judicial emergencies, “there are 31, we have 12 up here,” Grassley said. “Just so the public knows, we can’t deal with the other 19 until the White House gets them up here.”

There are currently 17 judicial nominees waiting for a floor vote, and a dozen are lifetime appointments. Grassley said he expects more debate on the Supreme Court issue on Thursday, when his committee takes up other pending judicial nominations.